Space Exploration Symposium 2024
October 10–11, 2024
North Campus,
University of Alberta
This year's University of Alberta, Space Exploration Symposium includes sessions on searching for extraterrestrial life, space science and exploration and space medicine and more. Our keynote speaker is Dr Heather Graham, NASA Goddard Spaceflight Centre.
Note: Zoom video links to the symposium are available at the bottom of this page.
Schedule
Thursday, October 10
Location: ETLC Solarium, University of Alberta
| 13:00 |
Opening Remarks and Land Acknowledgement |
Chris Herd Ivan Fair |
ISSET Principal Director Vice Dean, Engineering |
| 13:10 |
PEPPER-X Mission Retrospective: Results and Lessons Learned from the First Canadian RockSat-X Team |
Erik F. Halliwell | PEPPER-X PM / SE Lead & UofA ECE MSc Student |
| 13:30 |
Balloon-Borne Atmospheric Trace Gas Sensing |
Wolfgang Jaeger | ISSET/Chemistry |
| 13:50 |
Bone loss in space travelers |
Svetlana Komarova | Biomedical Eng. |
| 14:10 |
Earth-based models to study physiological effects of space radiation: scoping review |
Madalina Patron | Biomedical Eng. |
| 14:30 | Break | ||
| 14:40 |
An Update on Mars Sample Return |
Chris Herd | ISSET/EAS |
| 15:00 |
Modelling the Cooling Times of Shock Melt Veins in Lunar Meteorites |
Tatiana Mijajlovic | EAS |
| 15:20 |
Autonomous Additive Manufacturing Considerations for Space Economy |
Ahmed Qureshi | MECE |
| 15:40 |
Lunar Habitats: Advancing 3D Printing for Sustainable Construction on the Moon |
Rafiq Ahmad | MECE |
| 16:00 |
Freezing assisted metal 3D printing in microgravity |
Abrar Ahmed and Ganesh Prabhu Komaragiri | Dr. Waghmare's research group (iSSELab) |
| 16:20 |
CalgaryToSpace - FrontierSat |
Kaleigh Beer, Aaryan Deshpande, Gurshaan Gill | UCalgary |
| 16:40 |
Low-Cost, In-house Manufacturing of a 3U CubeSat Structure |
Ben Harbarenko | ABSat |
| 17:00 | Close | ||
Evening Sessions:
Location: Telus Centre, University of Alberta (11104 87 Ave NW, Edmonton, AB T6G 2R3)
| 18:30 | Doors open | ||||||||
| 19:00 |
Opening remarks and welcome |
Chris Herd Matina Kalcounis-Rueppell |
ISSET Principal Director College Dean & Vice Provost of Natural and Applied Sciences |
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| 19:10 |
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| 20:00 |
Roundtable discussion |
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| 20:45 | Close | ||||||||
Challenges in The Search for Life Outside Earth
Friday, October 11
Location: ETLC Solarium, University of Alberta
| 12:00 |
Welcome to Day 2 |
Carlos Lange | ISSET Deputy Director |
| 12:05 |
Above and Beyond: How the Space Industry Welcomes Everyone |
Shiva Patil | Rocket Lab |
| 12:45 | Break | ||
| 13:00 |
Introduction to Icy Moons |
Sofia Sejutee | CME |
| 13:20 |
Tackling Thermal Challenges in Earth Observation as a New Space Payload Engineer |
Geneva Vandervinne | Wyvern |
| 13:40 |
Testing a Compliant Mechanism in Microgravity for CubeSat and Spacecraft Applications |
Sandro Nevesinjac | ABSat |
| 14:00 |
Flight Software Architecture for ExAlta3 |
Priyanka Goradia | ABSat |
| 14:20 |
How to build a Sounding Rocket and Scientific Payloads |
Christiaan Venter | STARR |
| 14:40 |
STARLab: Making Space Accessible |
Shakiba Mir Ahmadi | UManitoba |
| 15:00 | Break | ||
| 15:10 |
History of AlbertaSat |
Carlos Lange | ISSET/MECE |
| 15:30 |
Unveiling Atmospheric X-Rays: A High-Altitude Balloon Mission |
Sally Palmers | DEBORA |
| 15:50 |
Weather Balloon-borne Timepix Measurements and Future Collaborative Opportunities |
Leonid Olifer | Banting Postdoctoral Fellow, UofA Physics |
| 16:10 |
Development and Design of Radiative Passive Heating and Cooling Systems |
Ezra Dese and Dan Sameoto | ISSET/MECE |
| 16:30 | Break | ||
| 16:40 |
Why we should be looking for a Nomadic Post-Biological ETI |
Steven J. Firth | PhD student, University of Helsinki |
| 17:00 |
The History of the Extraterrestrial Life Debate: Misconceptions and Misunderstandings. |
Robert Smith | Professor, Dept of History |
| 17:30 | Close | ||
remote video link
For anyone not able to attend the talks in person, here are the Zoom links. Please email herd@ualberta.ca to obtain the passcodes.